Study analyses factors leading to LASIK retreatments

Older age and higher preoperative astigmatism, sphere, and corneal steepness are associated with higher rates of myopic LASIK retreatment, but larger optical ablation zones might decrease retreatment rates, a new study suggests. It’s authors evaluated 9177 right eyes in 9177 consecutive LASIK cases performed between January 2005 and December 2012. They found that 165 (1.80%) had at least one retreatment. Multiple binary logistic regression analysis showed that the significant cutoffs associated with retreatments were age greater than 50 years, astigmatism more than 1.5 D, and sphere more than 2.0 D. The study also showed that over the course of the study, the two-year retreatment rate decreased from 2.58% to 0.38% (P < .001).